With interest in the NFL in the United Kingdom at an all-time high, the Jacksonville Jaguars have made a multi-year commitment to International Series games in London.

The Jaguars will play one regular-season home game in the United Kingdom in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016, all at London’s historic Wembley Stadium. The date of the 2013 game as well as the opposing team will be announced in the months ahead.

I think at least some of those games should be against Tampa Bay. The Buccaneers have a history of playing in London so it makes sense.

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Originally Posted by SolidGold

Bortlezzzzzzz

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Originally Posted by Monomach

Brilliant letting one of Scott Pioli's henchmen have his own team to ruin. One of the premier GM jobs in the NFL and it gets handed to a stupid **** who makes three facepalm moves for every good one. Awesome. Just like handing a new Mercedes to a 16 year old girl who's already been in three wrecks.

Well initially we were due to have a 3 year slate of the Rams from this year. It seems the NFL are really pushing the idea of us having a team each season to root for to try and build a fan base. I'm personally wondering if it is sort of a "trial" towards ultimately an international franchise.

Personally I wouldn't go down that route at all, a lot of fans here have their allegiances and won't switch (I know I wouldn't go from Colts to Jags!), games are expensive for much more than a one off if you aren't in London (I'm looking at maybe £250 when you factor in hotel, travel, ticket etc), and if you are in London there are so many other sports events it's a lot of competition for 8 of your weekends, I doubt you would see sellouts.

Well initially we were due to have a 3 year slate of the Rams from this year. It seems the NFL are really pushing the idea of us having a team each season to root for to try and build a fan base. I'm personally wondering if it is sort of a "trial" towards ultimately an international franchise.

Personally I wouldn't go down that route at all, a lot of fans here have their allegiances and won't switch (I know I wouldn't go from Colts to Jags!), games are expensive for much more than a one off if you aren't in London (I'm looking at maybe £250 when you factor in hotel, travel, ticket etc), and if you are in London there are so many other sports events it's a lot of competition for 8 of your weekends, I doubt you would see sellouts.

You would not switch allegiances, but you would not be the person they are going after. You are more likely to buy tickets anyway to see NFL football at all. This would mostly be for the youngins.

Very true, I'm still not certain it would be a roaring success, and they absolutely would have to lower prices I think for it to compete with the soccer teams.

I think thats the largest thing that's not talked about in the States when moving overseas. The MLS has its moderate growth based on the fact its season is outside of the NFL. The NFL would have smaller growth with the same season as the EPL.

What a joke of a franchise the Jaguars are. Most teams would be pissed if they had to play overseas one year, and the Jaguars volunteer to do it for four years in a row. I mean, I guess this should guarantee they won't be moving for a while, but still that's pathetic.

I'm sorry to everyone overseas but this shouldn't happen now or ever. Its not fair to any of the franchises involved even for 1 gam a year to travel to London. If they put a franchise overseas it would be a ****ing joke, thankfully I dont think that will ever happen. The NFL wasn't made to support a team like that, its just to much. I hope the Packers never make the trip across the lake even for a game.

I know from talking to some Bucs fans who came over in the past that they got offered tickets as part of their season ticket. I think they said if they didnt take up the option they had to pay regardless, but that game was a while ago now, and I might be wrong on that too

What a joke of a franchise the Jaguars are. Most teams would be pissed if they had to play overseas one year, and the Jaguars volunteer to do it for four years in a row. I mean, I guess this should guarantee they won't be moving for a while, but still that's pathetic.

Yeah, you are 100% wrong about this. Their total attendance is increasing every year, their total season ticket sales are increasing, and their season ticket renewal rates are going in a positive direction. This year, they are going to remove the tarps (increasing stadium size by about 10K) for a few of the big games and they will likely be removing the tarps completely in the next few years.

Playing games overseas was a business decision by the owner to try to expand the brand. People calling this move pathetic are stuck in the past of about five years ago when their games were being blacked out. Now they aren't having any issue selling out. Their attendance isn't at Green Bay-Chicago-Pittsburgh levels but they are much better than teams like San Diego, Tampa, St. Louis, and Oakland.

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Originally Posted by SolidGold

Bortlezzzzzzz

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Originally Posted by Monomach

Brilliant letting one of Scott Pioli's henchmen have his own team to ruin. One of the premier GM jobs in the NFL and it gets handed to a stupid **** who makes three facepalm moves for every good one. Awesome. Just like handing a new Mercedes to a 16 year old girl who's already been in three wrecks.

If you're talking why don't we send over any American Football teams, it's because they would get kerb stomped. Some of the guys on the University team I played for went on to play in the top division of the mens leagues over here, and when they toured over to the US they were losing very heavily to some not very distinguished programs.

As for soccer, they play pre-season games over there which I guess was initially what the NFL did for the European market. I think part of the issues is there is a 38 game regular season, plus European commitments for some, domestic cup competitions etc. Top teams can end up playing close to 70 games, hard to fit into an 8 or so month window without trans-atlantic flights, though there were discussions within the ruling body about a "39th game"

And because I doubt they're as interested in raising the profile of their sport in other countries. Soccer is one of the most popular sports around the world, whereas football is only played in the states.

What a joke of a franchise the Jaguars are. Most teams would be pissed if they had to play overseas one year, and the Jaguars volunteer to do it for four years in a row. I mean, I guess this should guarantee they won't be moving for a while, but still that's pathetic.

You mean that same Jaguars franchise that won more playoffs game in their 2nd year than the lions have in the past 50 years combined? What a joke the lions are.

I am so glad the Rams backed out of it. Too bad some1 else decided to suck at the power teet. I mean don't get me wrong, I think expanding the game is great, and all, but at the expense of 1 of 8 precious games to fans of these teams?

Well Jax doesn't sell out anyway so they might make more money playing overseas.

The Jags haven't had a blackout in two years. Like I said, there are a lot of teams worse off than they are. Take the Bengals. They had all but two of their games blacked out last year despite being a playoff team, having a smaller stadium, and larger metropolitan area.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by SolidGold

Bortlezzzzzzz

Quote:

Originally Posted by Monomach

Brilliant letting one of Scott Pioli's henchmen have his own team to ruin. One of the premier GM jobs in the NFL and it gets handed to a stupid **** who makes three facepalm moves for every good one. Awesome. Just like handing a new Mercedes to a 16 year old girl who's already been in three wrecks.

The Jags haven't had a blackout in two years. Like I said, there are a lot of teams worse off than they are. Take the Bengals. They had all but two of their games blacked out last year despite being a playoff team, having a smaller stadium, and larger metropolitan area.

That's because they put tarp over huge sections of the stadium. Those seats are no longer considered "part" of the stadium and don't apply to the blackout rules.

They do. But like what someone said before, they are preseason games. It wasn't a sell out but 38,000 people went see Chelsea play a meaningless game at Yankee Stadium earlier this summer. Other stadiums had similar (maybe slightly less) attendance for other teams preseason games this summer as well.

The Jags haven't had a blackout in two years. Like I said, there are a lot of teams worse off than they are. Take the Bengals. They had all but two of their games blacked out last year despite being a playoff team, having a smaller stadium, and larger metropolitan area.

Because they artificially lowered their stadium attendance numbers by "taking" out seats.

That's because they put tarp over huge sections of the stadium. Those seats are no longer considered "part" of the stadium and don't apply to the blackout rules.

Everbank Field has approximately 78K seats. The tarps reduce that to 67K. Paul Brown Stadium has 65K seats. So Jacksonville still has the bigger stadium. Jacksonville sell out 93% of their stadium (including club seats and luxury). Cincinnati sells 75%. If Jacksonville took the tarps off the seats and counted those 10,000 seats, they would still sell 81% of their tickets.

If we want to call a franchise a joke, let's call the Bengals a joke for not being able to sell out their stadium and having the same amount of playoff wins as the Jaguars despite being in the NFL for 32 more years.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by SolidGold

Bortlezzzzzzz

Quote:

Originally Posted by Monomach

Brilliant letting one of Scott Pioli's henchmen have his own team to ruin. One of the premier GM jobs in the NFL and it gets handed to a stupid **** who makes three facepalm moves for every good one. Awesome. Just like handing a new Mercedes to a 16 year old girl who's already been in three wrecks.

Everbank Field has approximately 78K seats. The tarps reduce that to 67K. Paul Brown Stadium has 65K seats. So Jacksonville still has the bigger stadium. Jacksonville sell out 93% of their stadium (including club seats and luxury). Cincinnati sells 75%. If Jacksonville took the tarps off the seats and counted those 10,000 seats, they would still sell 81% of their tickets.

If we want to call a franchise a joke, let's call the Bengals a joke for not being able to sell out their stadium and having the same amount of playoff wins as the Jaguars despite being in the NFL for 32 more years.

The Bengals are a joke too. You're not breaking any news there. They've been the punch line of many jokes for a long time.